All That Matters
by fairtradecocoabeans
Summary: Percy died six years ago in a freak monster attack, leaving Annabeth stranded with her unborn child. But her daughter won't let anything stop her from finding her father. No matter where he is.


Annabeth POV:

I gazed out at the sparkling blue sea with a small smile. As much as it pains me to be here, it's also a comfort somehow.

Beatrix was sat down on the sand, patting her sandcastles to make them smooth, decorating them with the help of a creepy looking crab... I kept my distance, crabs look _way _too similar to spiders.

"Smile for the camera!" I said, snapping a picture of her. She grins and sticks her tongue out and bounds up to me with the crab in her hands.

Instinctively I lurch away, determined not to let it touch me.

"This is Steve," she said. "He's my new friend!"

"T-that's nice," I reply. "Shall we head up to Camp Half Blood now?"

She bites her lip. "I don't like Camp Half Blood."

I raise an eyebrow. "Why not? Everybody loves you there."

"But its _sooo _fake, it's just because they were friends with Daddy and that's why they're friendly. And Chiron never tells me anything about Daddy and Dante Stoll always plays pranks on me and it's not fair because he's got a Daddy and a Mommy – "

I scoop her up into my arms, ignoring the crab she's holding. "You _have _got a Daddy and a Mommy and we both love you so much."

"But I've never seen him – he's never come back from his job in Au...Aust..."

"Australia?"

"Yes! And he's never sent any letters or anything. I want him back, Mommy."

"I know, Trix, I want him back as well."

I carried her to the car and we drove off to Camp Half Blood. The border let us through easily and Chiron waved at us from the Big House.

It's been six years now. Six years. I'm twenty four now, a...single parent with the most beautiful daughter in the world. Even though the incident back then left a gap in my heart, I still have my baby girl and at this moment...that's all that matters.

Beatrix's POV

"Steve, do you know anything about my Daddy?"

Steve looks up at me.

_Of course. The prince of the seas himself._

"Is he ever coming back to Camp Half Blood? Pleeeeease say 'he is'," I gave him puppy eyes.

_I can't say for sure, little one._

Huh. He's the little one.

_Ok, ok _he sighs. _Your Dad is in a faraway place – _

"I know that. He's in Austr...Austrel..."

_Australia?_

"Yeah. So if I steal a Pegasus, I can go and meet him right now!"

_I don't think that's a good idea_

"But I want him back!" I complain. Why does nobody want me to find him? It's so not fair. Nobody else seems interested in finding him, just me. I guess nobody else really cares about him as much as me.

"Are you talking to yourself again, Miss Mermaid?"

Dante. Stupid Dante Stoll. "Go_ away _and I'm not talking to myself. I'm talking to Steve."

"'Cos you've got no other friends," he says rudely. There's this curl of hair right in the middle of his face that I really want to move.

"I have got friends."

"Grown ups don't count."

"Does to."

"Does not."

"_Does to."_

Dante shrugs and walks away. I smirk and watch him. A sudden explosion of gunk covers him with a _splat. _

"You moved the switch!" he yells at me. "That was meant for you!"

One step ahead every time!

"Can't fool me, Dante!" I call. "I know your tricks."

I leave him dripping in slimy green goo and run back to the camp laughing, with Steve close at my heels.

_You know, that isn't going to make you any friends_

"So what? He put the switch there in the first place – I just moved it."

I ran up to the stables and gave Blackjack some sugar cubes – it's kinda a tradition now. But even Blackjack doesn't tell me about my Dad. He only said that he is the awesomest person in the history of awesome people. So I guess that's a good thing.

I then sat down on the grass, on the hill next to the pine tree. Thalia said that she used to live in the pine tree – or something like that. Which is weird. I mean, who lives in a pine tree? But Thalia's cool – she's like ten years older than me and she says that one day I can join the hunters.

But I suck at archery, so I guess I can't.

"Hey."

I turn around curiously.

Zachary. Just great. No one likes Zac. At. All. His Daddy is Nico di Angelo and he is the son of Hades. Nobody seems to like death very much.

"Hi."

"Mind if I join you?"

Yes.

_Trix, that's rude. _Steve says.

"No, not at all."

Zac is eight years old – which is quite old. Well, two years older than me. So that's pretty old. He's got pale skin, black hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"You've got nice eyes," I say and then I wonder what came over me. But I've never really noticed how pretty they look.

Zac smiles slightly – it may be small, but it's real. Loads of other people smile at me but I don't think it's real. "You've got nice eyes as well. The colour of emeralds."

"Mommy said I in...inhar..."

"Inherited."

"Inherited them from my Daddy but he's in Australia..." I said Australia! Achievement of the day! "He's got black hair like you as well, Mommy has loads of photos and there's a photo in the big house. What sort of powers do you have? We're both leg..."

"Legacies. And yeah, I can't do a lot. Just speak to dead souls occasionally and bring an army of skeletons from the ground. My Dad is trying to teach me shadow travelling but I've only managed it once."

I gape. That. Is. So. Awesome! "Wow! I can only talk to fish – "

_Do I look like a fish to you? _

"Sorry Steve," I say, patting him on his head. "And sea creatures and horses and zebras – "

"Zebras?"

"Yeah! I love zebras! They are really nice to me, I met one in a zoo and I helped him escape. Grandpa Poseidon took him back to his home country. I also can breathe underwater and that's about it."

"You sure you can't do anything else?"

"Nothing!" I pause and consider something. "Will you help me with something?"

"Of course."

"I want to find my Daddy. I'm going to take Blackjack and find him in Australia. But I don't want to go alone."

Zac hesitates.

"Pleeeeease?" I give him puppy eyes – another thing I inherited from my Daddy.

"Trix, there's something you ne – "

The conch horn suddenly sounded.

"We gotta go! You can tell me later at the camp fire, ok?"

We ran up the hill and I sat with the Athena table for dinner. I don't think any of them liked Steve though, so I told him to go and sit with Mommy instead.

I put a large piece of meat in the fire. _Please let me find my Daddy, _I prayed to no one in particular.

"I saw you with death boy," Louisa sneered – she's the daughter of Athena. Sometimes she's nice, sometimes she's not.

"So?"

The Athena people laugh. But it feels nasty – Mommy doesn't laugh like that.

"He's the legacy of Hades, Trix," she says.

Well, duh. "He's really nice."

They laugh again and nudge each other. I suddenly feel very unwanted. The Athena cabin is really horrible – the rest of the cabins are fine, except for Dante.

"He _is_," I say again, just to make my point.

"Honey, I only want to help you. He's so immersed in death that its unnatural – he'll bring misfortune on you."

"But he...he's not like that."

"People lie all the time."

"Yeah, like you."

Louisa's face goes a funny shade of red. I would laugh if I didn't feel so horrible inside.

"Friends aren't supposed to keep secrets from you."

What's that supposed to mean?

"Leave her alone, Louisa," one of the Athena people says harshly. "She's just a kid."

"And a bastard," someone sniggered.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I've heard that word many times before and I know it's not something nice.

I stand up and run away from the dining pavilion and down to the beach. I sit on the soft sand and hug my knees, feeling suddenly very alone.

_Daddy, please come home._

I miss him so much. Dante says that you can't miss something you never had but that's not true. Because I miss Daddy and I want him back and he'll make everything alright again and Mommy won't cry in her sleep anymore.

I want him back.

There's voices from the trees behind me, it sounds like people are arguing. I don't usually eavesdrop, but it's kinda hard not to listen.

Steve scuttles up to me. _Trix, you have to go. _

"No, wait. Is that my Mommy?"

_You have to go _he urged again.

"That's Grandpa Poseidon as well," I say excitedly.

"-haven't told her yet?" he was saying.

I frowned and leaned forwards, hiding myself behind the rocks.

"What choice do I have?"

"You could at least tell her the truth!"

I flinched. I've never heard Grandpa shout before.

"The truth would hurt her," Mommy's voice sounds shaky.

"You've given her false hope – Percy died six years ago and now you've been _lying _to her. He doesn't live in Australia, he's in Elysium and she has a right to know."

_Beatrix... _

Percy. My Daddy's name.

My Daddy is... _dead_?

_Beatrix..._Steve whispers again.

"Leave me alone," I shout.

The waves suddenly loom up behind me and the sky suddenly darkens. The beach shakes heavily, sending Steve, Mommy and Grandpa onto their backs. I stand in the midst, I can't see anything but red.

I can feel myself running; I just want to get away. Away from the liars. _Everyone _knew. Mommy, Grandpa, Steve, Dante, Louisa...Zac. They all betrayed me.

False hope.

False hope.

False hope. That's all I've been running on for my entire life.

"Trix, _Trix_."

My eyes flutter open and I flinch away from the person. Zac. Why is he here? I'm in a cave...somewhere high on a hill. The sun is rising from the hills faraway.

"Go away," I say. He betrayed me. He knew and he never told me. "_Go away._"

"No. Everyone has been searching for you all night. Your Mom is panicking and – "

"I _don't care_. You lied. She lied. Everyone lied."

"Trix, I was going to tell you," he says gently. "I swear to the gods, I was going to tell you. I'm really, truly sorry you had to go through that – "

"Just leave me alone."

He ignored me and held out his hand. "Do you want to see your Dad?"

"Yes. But that's never going to happen."

"It's possible, Trix. I promise."

"You're lying."

He didn't back down. Part of me felt glad that he didn't, but the other part of me told me to push him off the hill.

"I'm the legacy of Hades. I can take you to the underworld to see him."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "You...you would do that for me?"

He gave me a smile. "You're the first person who accepted me for who I am. I owe you this."

I looked at his outstretched hand and then took it firmly.

"Hold your breath," he said.

And together we ran into a shadow.

Blackness coated my eyes. I could hear screaming and a band of fire tightened around my chest. But I held Zac's hand all the way through.

We stumbled out and I found myself standing by the side of a river. Black and smelly. Gross.

We walked on together for what felt like ages. The cold air and emptiness scared me, so I kept Zac's hand tight in mine.

"My lord," a skeletal creature said. He stood on a boat and eyed me suspiciously. "Like father, like daughter, I see."

"Just take us across, Charon," Zac hissed.

"Of course, my lord."

Zac helped me onto the boat and we slowly began to sail across the dark waters, with the screams of people around us.

I was relieved to get off. Zac gave the skeletal man a drachma, which made him smile really creepily.

"It's not far from here," Zac assured.

And there in the distance I could see it. The bright beautiful fields of Elysium. Paradise. I'm so close...I'm so close...

There's a man. Black hair and green eyes. He's looking at me from the edge and smiling right up to his eyes.

"Daddy!"

Zac grins and the glow around the man disappears.

I let go of Zac's hand and I run up to the man, throwing myself into his arms. "I found you. I knew I would find you."

He lifts me up and hugs me back. "I love you, I love you so much."

Annabeth POV:

"Mommy, mommy!"

My daughter runs up to me with the biggest smile I've ever seen. I crouch down and hug her tightly. "I thought I lost you. I'm so sorry, baby. I'm – "

"Mommy it doesn't matter. I forgive you. All that matters is that we're together."


End file.
